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A PrIl 16, 2014
P OrTlANd
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V OlUME XXXVI, N O . 28
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C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
New
President
at PCC
25
INNOCENT
Connecticut official
chosen to lead PCC
Cascade campus
Of The Skanner News
See EDWARDS on page 3
INDEX
News...............1,3,6,10
Opinion .....................2
Calendars ..............4,5
A & E ......................8,9
Bids/Classifieds ........11
AP PHOTO/BEBETO MATTHEWS
T
he search for a new Portland Commu-
nity College cascade president has
ended with selection of Karin
Edwards, dean of student development and
services at Three Rivers Community Col-
lege, in Norwich, Conn.
She takes over
from beloved
former President
Algie
Gate-
wood, who last
year moved to
North Carolina
and a job at Ala-
m a n c e
Community
College to be
closer to his
Karin Edwards
family. Edwards
starts on July 21.
In her former position, Edwards served as
chief student affairs officer, overseeing mar-
keting, public relations, admissions,
recruitment, financial aid, veteran affairs,
records and registration, counseling, advis-
ing, placement testing, career services,
student activities, childcare, off-campus
operations, and student discipline.
PCC officials say she has worked in the
past on student success strategies, planning,
budgeting and assessment.
“I am looking forward to coming to Port-
land to join the students, staff and faculty of
the Cascade Campus of PCC,” Edwards
said in a statement. “The level of concern,
commitment and connection to the commu-
nity this campus has demonstrated is so
impressive. I’m absolutely honored to serve
as the president.”
Edwards has also worked at Orange
County Community College in Middletown,
N.Y., including Director of College Exten-
sion Centers, Director of the Newburgh
Extension Center and Student Development
Counselor.
Jonathan Fleming, right, reaches to hug his mother Tricia Fleming in Brooklyn’s Supreme court after a judge
declared him free, Tuesday April 8, 2014 in New York. Oregon has launched its own version of the Innocence
project, the last state in the US to do so; legendary attorney Steven Wax will lead the organization.
Oregon Starts Historic Project
Oregon Supreme Court may overturn Jerrin Hickman conviction
By Helen Silvis
Of The Skanner News
L
ast week in New York,
Jonathan
Fleming
walked free after being
exonerated for a murder he
didn’t commit. Fleming spent
24 years in jail, while the
phone receipt that proved he
was 1,100 miles away when
the crime was committed lay,
decaying, inside the case file.
Fleming would still be in
prison without the work of the
Brooklyn Conviction Integrity
Unit, dedicated to exonerating
innocent people who have
been wrongly convicted.
Until the launch of the Ore-
gon Innocence Project, April
9, Oregon was the only state in
the country without some kind
of group working to overturn
wrongful convictions. Steve
Wax, one of the country’s top
criminal defense lawyers, is
stepping down from his long-
time job as Oregon’s Federal
Public Defender to take the
helm.
With Wax as legal director
and a committed group behind
him, the project is ready to hit
the ground running, said Barry
Scheck, co-founder of the
National Innocence Project in
New York.
“Once it gets going, it’s
going to move in at a very high
level of sophistication and
competence,” Scheck said.
“I think that what is going to
happen initially is that the
Innocence Project here in Ore-
gon is going to be working
with law enforcement, prose-
cutors and the judiciary to
come up with best practices.”
“What’s very optimistic
about Oregon is that this proj-
ect has got enormous support
from very significant stake-
holders all across the state. So
we all expect that there will be
great reforms coming out of
this, even before the exonera-
tions, which always take a
number of years.”
In Washington, the Inno-
cence Project Northwest,
based at the University of
Washington Law School, has
entered 12 people to the
National Registry of Exonera-
tions since it was founded in
1997.
Last April, Jeramie Davis
was exonerated of murder with
the help of DNA evidence. He
See INNOCENCE on page 3
Seattle’s Herman McKinney, 1939-2014
He was a lifelong Civil Rights activist and former Oregon resident
H
erman McKinney, civil rights
activist and a community leader in
Seattle died April 11, aged 75. Born
in Oklahoma, McKinney arrived as a child
in Portland, Ore., during WWII. His family
was one of thousands of Black families who
headed North to work in the Kaiser ship-
yards.
A home-going service is scheduled for
Friday, April 25, 2014, 11a.m., at First AME
Church, 1522 14th Ave, Seattle, WA, 206-
324-3664.
McKinney played football at the Universi-
ty of Oregon before heading to the
University of Washington to pursue a mas-
ters in social work.
He went on to work for University of
Washington as an assistant dean, where he
was responsible for increasing the number
of students of color at the university.
McKinney was a lifelong advocate for
diversity and equity in education, hiring and
zipcode equity.
In 1976, with Ernie Dunston, Paul
Mitchell and other Black men, McKinney
co-founded The Breakfast Group dedicated
to “mentoring and addressing the challenges
of at-risk youth of color focusing on black
See MCKINNEY on page 3